"It Doesn't Matter What I Think": Perceptions and Experiences of COVID-19 in Rural Northern California

Abstract

Much remains unknown about how COVID-19 has been interpreted in rural America. This knowledge gap is increasingly problematic as cases in rural areas have proliferated, overwhelming local health systems. For this reason, this thesis investigated how residents of Shasta County, California, made sense of the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, using ethnographic moments, vignettes, observations, and 30 in depth qualitative interviews with Shasta residents to convey how people perceived, experienced, and responded to coronavirus during the summer of 2020. This paper pulled out a variety of worldviews and responses in this demographically homogenous region, identifying various mechanisms through which residents felt disenfranchised from the political process and isolated from other communities. As a result, this paper advocates for a more measured policy response to infectious disease pandemics that reframes necessary public health interventions in terms of one’s personal responsibility to protect each other. This research further underscores the necessity of federal relief funding and directives to facilitate compliance and understanding.